MIFA Provides Holiday Service Opportunities

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association is offering several ways to give back to the community this holiday season.

In conjunction with a special Christmas Day meals delivery, volunteers will deliver gift bags to 1,000 homebound senior meals clients. Those who would like to donate gifts should deliver them by Dec. 10 to MIFA, 910 Vance Ave.

Suggested gifts include blankets, stationery, postage stamps, winter caps, sweaters, shirts, socks, flashlights and games such as playing cards or crossword puzzles.

Another opportunity for a charitable contribution is the Holiday Hope Chest, which provides gifts for more than 400 children in MIFA’s Housing Opportunities, Emergency Services and Teen Job Services programs.

MIFA is asking for toys to be delivered by Dec. 6 to Mary Williams at MIFA.

Second Phase Slated For Arlington Development

Forrest Road LLC, the developer of Windsor Place subdivision in Arlington, has filed a $3.4 million loan through BankPlus to develop a second phase there. Windsor Place is south of Forrest Street just inside the Shelby-Fayette border, and its Phase I contains 50 lots on 37.3 acres.

Forrest Road’s principals are Roy Holmes and Dale Lawrence. Lawrence on Monday confirmed plans for a second phase but was unavailable for further comment.

The company also has filed an easement contract with Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division for the development’s second phase.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

Fannie Mae Posts $29 Billion Loss

Fannie Mae on Monday posted a $29 billion loss in the third quarter as it took a massive tax-related charge, and said it may have to tap the government’s $100 billion lifeline as early as next year.

The mortgage finance company, seized by federal regulators more than two months ago, posted a loss of $13 per share for the July-September quarter, mainly due to a $21.4 billion non-cash charge to reduce the value of tax assets. That compares to a loss of $1.4 billion, or $1.56 a share, in the year-ago period. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of $1.60 per share.

Fannie Mae’s net worth – the value of its assets minus the value of its liabilities – fell to $9.4 billion at the end of September from $44.1 billion at the end of last year. If that number turns negative, Fannie Mae said it would be required to obtain funding from the Treasury Department.

The ultimate bill for taxpayers may depend on whether the government, under President-elect Barack Obama, uses Fannie Mae and its sibling company Freddie Mac as a way to alleviate the foreclosure crisis by aggressively modifying or refinancing loans.

“They’re no longer being run for profit,” said Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst Howard Shapiro.

Washington-based Fannie Mae posted a loss of $13 per share for the July-September quarter, mainly due to a $21.4 billion non-cash charge to reduce the value of a tax asset and $9.2 billion in expenses resulting from falling home prices and surging defaults.

Fannie Mae, which has bled $33.5 billion in red ink so far this year, is now run by CEO Herbert Allison, formerly chairman and chief executive of retirement fund manager TIAA-CREF. Fannie Mae’s former top executive, Daniel Mudd, was ousted as part of the government takeover.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which own or guarantee around half of U.S. home loans, operate in a conservatorship that enables the government to inject up to $100 billion in each company in exchange for ownership stakes of almost 80 percent. They also are facing a federal grand jury investigation into their accounting practices.

FINRA Awards $90K To Regions Investors

A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority panel in Atlanta this month awarded more than $90,000 to a couple who had invested money in four Regions Morgan Keegan mutual funds.

The investors, Aubrey and Martha Wright, were retirees who filed an arbitration claim with FINRA arguing that the RMK funds – which previously were managed by Memphis-based Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc. – did not accurately disclose risk factors to investors, among other things.

While arbitrators generally don’t disclose the reasoning behind why they grant a certain monetary award, the award granted to the Wrights is a little less than double the $48,225 in losses they suffered investing in the funds.

TVA Region’s ’08 Growth Second Best on Record

A Tennessee Valley Authority tally of economic growth for fiscal 2008 totals more than $5.5 billion in the utility’s service region, which reaches into seven states.

While that’s close to a record set the year before, TVA Vice President John Bradley told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that activity has slowed and “there is a tougher year ahead.”

Volkswagen’s decision to build a $1 billion auto assembly plant at one of the utility’s designated megasites, Enterprise South in Chattanooga, Tenn., helped drive the business investment.

The new and expanding businesses totaling more than $5.5 billion are projected to create 41,620 jobs in the region.

TVA budgets $17 million a year on economic development activities and estimates it generated a record $5.6 billion in new investment in fiscal 2007. That was a third more than 2006, due largely to investment related to the Toyota plant at Tupelo, Miss.